Us: Movie Review

Us: Movie Review

Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker
Director: Jordan Peele

Us emerges from the shadow of the success of Get Out, and with the weight of crippling expectation as well.

Jordan Peele's debut was a sweeping takedown of America and the societal oppression of African Americans.

For his sophomore effort, Peele's slightly sidelined some of the more overtly racial elements in favour of a more direct horror film that mixes elements of The Twilight Zone (the reboot of which he's helping helm) and doppelganger fears the likes of which haven't been seen since Twin Peaks.

Nyong'o stars as Adelaide, who in 1986, as a child was changed after a visit to a Santa Cruz funhouse at the beach. When she, along with her husband (Duke, the film's necessary and realistic comic relief) and son and daughter returns, the family finds themselves being stalked by four people who look exactly like them...

Espousing an uneasy atmosphere, dousing the whole thing in tension and pumping up the intrigue works well for the large part of Us, with Peele's eye for disorienting shots and moments of fear delivering some memorable big screen imagery.

While the story doesn't quite have as many of the multi-levelled nuances of Get Out, the mystery rides for as long as it can, before being saddled with a necessary exposition-heavy final act. But the disorienting works well throughout, with most of the guessing likely to fall into the "wrong" category even with seasoned genre veterans.

What does emerge from Us is something that has a voice to speak to society, but is hardly the film's driving raison d'etre. A multi-layered mystery, that in turns relies on horror for its propulsion, Peele's approach to the cinema of unease and discord is to be saluted.

Atmospherics help build the feeling of dread and suspense, but it's also thanks to a towering performance from Nyong'o that this smart film gets its human edge. Anchoring the insidious home invasion horror to the more ambitious swerves of the film in the final run, Nyong'o's skill and flair are evident from the get go, summoning two different characters with ease.

Us may riff on the likes of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Invaders from Mars's societal unease that we're being replaced, but its commitment throughout is to psychological edge-of-your-seat fare.

That it achieves that with such ease is a commendation for Peele, and even if the final act's reveals seem a little garbled and rushed with a tantalising hint of a wider mythology to be fleshed out, the overall effect is still a contemplative and relative gut punch that's well-worth sitting through.